208 WILD WINGS 



What was that great cloud of birds high in the air, appar- 

 ently three or four hundred in number, driving in from the 

 sea with the gale ? I realized I was witnessing what I had 

 longed to see, a flight of the Golden Plover and Eskimo 

 Curlew, birds which in a certain way are to be associated in 

 a class by themselves. In a moment, as I stood there, I saw 

 another flock, and others, some smaller, but all of good size. 

 There was no especial order in their ranks ; it was no time to 

 think of such matters. The gale had reduced them to hud- 

 dling, driven masses. 



I have not space to detail the events of the day. For hours, 

 these and other shore-bird flocks passed in from the sea over 

 the end of the Cape. Most of them were high in air, but some 

 came in low over the outer beach, and were decimated by the 

 gunners. All that morning noble flocks of Golden Plover and 

 Eskimo Curlew were stringing over the pasture grounds and 

 barren hill-tops, where the gunners lay in wait for them 

 and shot them down. By noon the storm began to abate 

 slightly, and the flight slackened. Early the next morning, 

 though the wind was still in the east, there was hardly a wader 

 of any kind to be found. Every year since then, these fine 

 birds have become scarcer on New England shores, and such 

 a flight may never be seen again. There is a peculiar roman- 

 tic interest which attaches to these flights. After nesting in 

 the arctic regions, these plover and curlew proceed in August 

 to Labrador. Thence they pass to Nova Scotia, and then 

 south over the ocean, resting occasionally on its surface, but 

 avoiding the dangerous shores of the United States. Cross- 

 ing the West Indies, they are said to land on the shores of 

 Brazil, and thence pass down to Argentina, and even Pata- 

 gonia. If a gale blows them off this course, and compels 

 them to touch on our much-hunted shores, they leave them 

 at the earliest possible moment. In the spring they return to 



